Marvel Dominates Fandango’s Most Anticipated 2023 Movies Poll
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If Marvel fatigue is real, it isn’t manifesting itself in Fandango’s “most anticipated movies of 2023” survey. Among the 5,000 Fandango users polled, the most anticipated films coming next year are “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and the Sony-produced Marvel sequel “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.”
The hope is that an overall increase in theatrical releases in 2023 will help close the gap between the current overall domestic box office for the late 2010s. The overall box office is down around 43% from the last few pre-COVID years, and there were around 45% fewer theatrical releases compared to 2019.
Among those polled by the movie ticketing company, 99% were excited to see new movies in theaters, 97% pledged to attend more often compared to 2022 and 72% wanted to see more movies in IMAX and other premium large-format auditoriums.
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While James Gunn’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” topped all 2023 releases in terms of anticipation, the second most-anticipated film was a Marvel film from Sony Animation.
“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” is a follow-up to the Oscar-winning, critically acclaimed and leggy-as-hell ($190 million domestic from a $35 million debut weekend in December of 2018) animated adaptation. There’s no better candidate in 2023 for becoming a huge breakout sequel (when a sequel to a much-liked, slowly discovered crowdpleaser opens huge thanks to earned goodwill for its predecessor) than the second Mile Morales superhero sequel.
For example, “John Wick: Chapter 2” followed up the first breakout cult hit ($43 million domestic and $88 million worldwide from a $14 million domestic debut) with a $30 million domestic launch and $172 million global finish. “John Wick: Chapter 3” opened with $56 million in 2019 and legged out to $172 million domestically and $323 million worldwide. Considering the sheer star and character popularity of Keanu Reeves’ hunted and haunted hitman, it makes sense for “Chapter 4” (which brings Donnie Yen and Scott Adkins to the party) to be in fourth place in Fandango’s poll. Still, for an R-rated, original, star-driven franchise to poll so well is damn impressive.
The rest of the list is dominated by marquee character-driven sequels and IP plays like “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” “Mission: Impossible –Dead Reckoning Part I,” “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” (Lionsgate’s second entry on this list, impressive for the mini-major), “Creed III” and Illumination’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.”
Oodles of folks who don’t participate in online movie news/fan polls are still going to show up in droves for the return of Ethan Hunt and Indiana Jones. Non-voting family audiences are going to overwhelm multiplexes for both Illumination’s “Super Mario Bros.” flick and “Despicable Me 4.” Ditto, relatively speaking, “Fast X.”
What’s always bemusing about these polls is how actors end up near the top (or at the top) mostly due to the popularity of a given IP.
All due respect to Halle Bailey (Ariel in “The Little Mermaid”) or Christopher Walken (Emperor Shaddam IV in “Dune: Part Two”), but the same folks who would crown Jonathan Majors’ Kang (from “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania”) as the third-most anticipated new performance are also the sort to not even bother seeing “Devotion” in theaters. Of the list, only Margot Robbie as Barbie arguably qualifies as a true star/character butts-in-seats draw.
The “most anticipated villain” results are slightly more complicated. Melissa McCarthy as Ursula in “The Little Mermaid” is a raw star and concept hook, as is Jack Black as Bowser in “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” less so Bill Skarsgård as “the bad guy”in “John Wick 4.”
Pixar’s “Elemental” is fifth among family films, below both obvious IP plays (“Spider-Verse,” “Super Mario Bros.” and “Little Mermaid”) and Disney’s arguably lower-profile (for now) “Haunted Mansion” re-adaptation. “Despicable Me 3” earned $1 billion in 2017 and “Minions: The Rise of Gru” earned $935 million in 2022, so “Despicable Me 4” could trounce most of those at the box office, especially worldwide.
The most anticipated horror film list is topped by a movie that has no release date. At least WB and New Line can know that lots of folks are going to see “Salem’s Lot” (based on Stephen King’s vampires-in-suburbia classic) whenever it opens. That surprising first-place ranking among scare flicks is followed by Patrick Wilson’s directorial debut, “Insidious: Fear the Dark” (the previous four “Insidious” films earned $555 million global on a combined $26.5 million budget), Blumhouse’s “The Exorcist,” “Scream VI” and the upcoming “M3gan.”
Channing Tatum’s “Magic Mike’s Last Dance” (which judging by its trailer feels like a mix of “Magic Mike” and the later “Step Up” sequels, and yes that’s a compliment) topped among live-action comedies, followed by “Barbie,” “Cocaine Bear,” the upcoming “House Party” revamp and “80 for Brady.”
“Fast X” coming in under both the upcoming “Hunger Games” prequel and “Transformers: Rise of the Beast” among non-superhero action flicks isn’t great, but Jason Momoa made the cut among villains and, again, fan-driven properties tend to skew the results accordingly. While the top two such actioners are the fantasy-lite “Indiana Jones 5” and “Mission: Impossible 7,” but it’s a little grim that pop culture has become so Marvel/DC focused that even a new “Transformers” film qualifies as “something different.”
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The five top superhero flicks are the four big Marvel movies (“Guardians 3,” “Across the Spider-Verse,” “Ant-Man 3” and “The Marvels”) and DC’s Jason Momoa-starring “Aquaman” sequel. Considering “Aquaman” earned more ($1.148 billion worldwide) than the predecessors of those previous four films ($869 million in 2018, $375 million in 2018, $620 million in 2018 and $1.128 billion in 2019), it’s probably closer to a fair fight. Too bad about “The Flash,” but there’s time (no contextual pun intended).
Come what may, at least this is the first year since 2019 where one can be relatively certain that many (if not most) of the films listed above won’t get delayed over the course of the year.
The full results from Fandango’s 2023 Most Anticipated Movies Survey are as follows:
2023’s Most Anticipated Blockbusters:
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”
“Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse”
“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania”
“John Wick: Chapter 4”
“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”
“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom”
“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One”
“The Hunger Games: The Ballad of the Songbirds and Snakes”
“Creed III”
“The Super Mario Bros. Movie”
Most Anticipated New Performance on the Big Screen:
Halle Bailey (“The Little Mermaid”)
Viola Davis (“The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes”)
Jonathan Majors (“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania”)
Christopher Walken (“Dune: Part 2”)
Margot Robbie (“Barbie”)
Most Anticipated Hero:
Chris Pratt as Star-Lord (“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”)
Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones (“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”)
Keanu Reeves as John Wick (“John Wick 4”)
Zoe Saldaña as Gamora (“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”)
Paul Rudd as Ant-Man (“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania”)
Most Anticipated Villain:
Melissa McCarthy as Ursula (“The Little Mermaid”)
Bill Skarsgård as the Marquis (“John Wick: Chapter 4”)
Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror (“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania”)
Jack Black (voice) as Bowser (“The Super Mario Bros. Movie”)
Jason Momoa as Dante (“Fast X”)
Most Anticipated Family Film:
“Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse”
“The Super Mario Bros. Movie”
“The Little Mermaid”
“Haunted Mansion”
“Pixar’s Elemental”
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Most Anticipated Horror Film:
“Salem’s Lot”
“Insidious: Fear the Dark”
“The Exorcist”
“Scream 6”
“M3gan”
Most Anticipated Live-Action Comedy:
“Magic Mike’s Last Dance”
“Barbie”
“Cocaine Bear”
“House Party”
“80 for Brady”
Most Anticipated Action/Adventure (Non-Superhero) Movie:
“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”
“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One”
“The Hunger Games: The Ballad of the Songbirds and Snakes”
“Transformers: Rise of the Beasts”
“Fast X”
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Most Anticipated Superhero Movies
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”
“Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse”
“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania”
“The Marvels”
“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom”
Favorite Genre:
Action/Adventure/Superhero
Comedy
Animated/Family
Drama
Horror/Thriller
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